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WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY – 3RD MAY: An NFP Government will repeal the Media Industry Development Decree because we believe the media should not be regulated in any way by State or any Government

2/5/2017

6 Comments

 
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May 2, 2017
MEDIA RELEASE  

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY – 3RD MAY  
 
An NFP Government will repeal the Media Industry Development Decree because we believe the media should not be regulated in any way by the State or any Government.  

 
An NFP Government will also: -
 
1. Ensure taxpayer funds are justifiably used by spreading advertisements by Government and Statutory organisations across all media outlets and end the exclusivity enjoyed by one newspaper as is currently the case 2. Ensure funding for Public Service Broadcast for all mainstream broadcast and television media and not exclusive to Fiji Broadcasting Commission 3. Ensure Fiji Airways provides both daily newspapers to its passengers instead of providing only Fiji Sun
 
NFP upholds and promotes media freedom at all times despite falling victim to biased and unfair reporting by some media outlets. We do not blame the journalists but those leading those organisations using exclusive access to taxpayer’s funds to trumpet only Government’s view.  
 As we observe World Press Freedom Day tomorrow (3rd May), we also remember Individual journalists who were either removed, or re-assigned other duties when they tried to uphold media ethics.
 
In this regard we once again call upon Fiji Television Limited to reinstate journalist Shanal Sivan to the Fiji TV newsroom. Mr Sivan was removed from the Fiji TV newsroom by the Group CEO of Fijian Holdings Limited for amplifying the voice of ordinary citizens who expressed their disappointment over Government’s broken promises.
 
This is the kind of State interference in newsrooms through management of news organisations that has seen Fiji ranked the lowest of Pacific Island nations of Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea, in a recent report released by Reporters Without Borders.  Generally, the media industry in this country has been under siege since the military coup of December 2006.  The last 8 years, especially after the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution on 10th April 2009, have been turbulent and devastating for journalists and the media industry.
 
While the promulgation of the Media Industry Development Decree in 2010 ended State’s presence in the newsrooms and direct censorship, self-censorship is being practiced in most newsrooms with journalists awaiting responses from Government before publishing and broadcasting any statement by the Opposition.  
 
Only cosmetic changes were made to the Decree in July 2015 with fines against journalists removed but heavy penalties against Editors, Publishers and the media organisations remain like a noose around one’s neck.  
 
Media throughout the world is generally regarded as the Fourth Estate – the last line of defenders of democracy, human rights, dignity and justice.  
 
Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through the media regardless of frontiers”.
 
This freedom and right is reposed in the people, which the State and politicians must respect at all times. The Media Industry Development Decree is regressive and suppresses Media Freedom.
 
A free, fair and unregulated media is absolutely vital for true and genuine democracy as well to amplify the voices of not only Government but also the Opposition, without fear.
 
Professor Biman Prasad

Fijileaks: The first major assault on media freedom (which is yet to recover) was unleashed by COUPIST SITIVENI RABUKA, now leading SODELPA
A VOTE FOR SODELPA UNDER HIM IS A VOTE FOR THE ENDORSEMENT OF COUP CULTURE IN FIJI; He not only destroyed the livelihoods of many journalists but he pitted many native Fijian journalists against their Indo-Fijian colleagues with his slogan 'Fiji For Fijians'; and bullied, arrested and intimidated those native Fijian journalists - the likes of Nemani Delaibatiki - who refused to kowtow to him. The old Fiji Sun was forcibly shut down when it dared to ask the power-hungry racist megalomaniac:
"What right has a third-ranking officer to execute a COUP?"

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http://www.fijileaks.com/home/diary-of-a-newsman-the-former-fiji-times-editor-vijendra-kumar-on-1987-coups-and-rabuka-i-left-fiji-in-1991-sad-and-disillusioned-sad-because-the-country-of-my-birth-no-longer-made-me-feel-welcome

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A VOTE FOR SODELPA UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP WILL BE A REPEAT OF THE 1987 RABUKA HORROR SHOW: Watch the video where Rabuka's racist mob on the loose are punching and kicking Indo-Fijians like rugby balls outside the Suva Travel Lodge hotel; among his victims was VICTOR LAL's late taxi-driver uncle who just happened to be dropping a passenger at the hotel when he was dragged out of the taxi and badly beaten up; the poor man (who had voted for Ratu Mara's Alliance Party all his life) died without seeing Rabuka being brought to justice:
http://footage.framepool.com/en/shot/852289994-coup-d%27etat-fiji-unrest-hotel

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And, the so-called leader of Indo-Fijians, is talking coalition pact with "THE DEVIL'S AGENT" instead of calling for him to be put on TRIAL

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6 Comments
Chiku
2/5/2017 11:20:16 am

A free, fearless press and free speech is the heart and soul of a truly democratic society . Without it you can only have democracy in name.
Now what kind of media freedom does Fiji have under the Bainimarama regime?
It has an intimidated, cowered media that can no longer carry out its public duty to hold power to account.
That will not change as long as the Fiji First Government of the coupist Bainimarama and Khaiyum remain in power.
It's up to the people of Fiji to decide whether that is the way they want to be governed and the way they want to live.

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Welcome Home
2/5/2017 03:24:24 pm

The AWOL media began to become more than obvious as serious organised crime got going in performance gaps. In Nadi Town from 2005 a series of murders of business people began. Mostly, these attacks by cane knife took place at the entrance or gate to the victims' homes or place of business. On 16 September 2006 a father was attacked arriving home just after 8pm and the attack was witnessed. The case dragged on for several years. The perpetrator even escaped from custody outside Lautoka High Court and got himself to India for a period of time. The small baby left behind in Nadi with his mother was only two months old. The couple had been to New Zealand for fertility treatment. No newspaper nor directly contacted Nadi or Lautoka journalist would touch this grizzly story nor the 2005 earlier one. The names of reporters who failed to measure up are known and some still work in the Fiji media. Women were also murdered: in nightclubs; on beaches and others were routinely threatened with harm of one kind or another. Then .......Police Post Bures were serially set on fire in what now may be termed 'terrorist arson'. The aim was seemingly to strike fear and despair into the local population already besieged by home invasions, rapes and violent assaults. The press were given plenty to work on but they chose to 'play mum'. Meantime, some of the family members where husbands had been killed, chose to leave for Australia or New Zealand to seek solace and safety. We did not discourage them. We actively assisted them to do so with alacrity. What standing or rating does the Fiji Media deserve from Reporters Without Boders? Sanctuary for a Fijian female journalist was sought in 2002 before she left to go to Eire/N Ireland. Her weight had fallen to a dangerously low level and still she was under duress in her Suva-based job. Where was the support she required in Fiji? Why was there so little professional backing for those reporters and women police officers who wished to perform appropriately in a pervasive climate of threats and fear? The Chambers of Commerce were not ignorant of the facts. They were challenged - they shamefully failed us.

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Samjoe
2/5/2017 09:09:15 pm

The pedigree of the Fiji First Party government tells you why free press and free speech is regarded an anathema by this mob who came to power by a military coup and entrenched themselves in power by imposing a dictatorship on the people of Fiji.
In the phoney democracy they have set up they still have the modus operandi of the dictatorship . Hence the intolerance and persecution of a free media and reporters who don't perpetually sing their praise.
It's time to remove this mob from power for the good of the country.

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Rajend Naidu
2/5/2017 10:47:31 pm

Editor,
Fighting to Protect Democracy from Dictatorship
The democratic opposition in Venezuela has called for mass protest and civil disobedience to stop President Nicholas Maduro's attempt to rewrite the constitution with a new 500 member assembly .
The opposition say Maduro's bogus claim for a need to redo the constitution is " a desperate attempt to hang onto power ".
( Aljazeera news 3/5 ).
It's not uncommon for rogue leaders to make the spurious claim for the need to change the constitution only to hang on to power and to cynically manipulate the laws to serve that agenda.
We know that from our own coup experience.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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Welcome Home
3/5/2017 06:46:20 am

Add to the reading list of George Orwell's two novels Elie Wiesel's "NIGHT".
Time was taken early this year to reread this survivor, former journalist and consummate Human Right's activist's meticulous documenting of his time aged 16 in Auschwitz concentration camp. He was the sole survivor of his family. Fijian journalists must take heart and courage from him. Their task is sacred. Their responsibility is very great to all Fijians living and dead. We understand their situation and we pray for them and their families each and every day. The trust we place in them must never be betrayed again.

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Rajend Naidu
4/5/2017 11:56:12 am

Editor,
Press Role
" Without a free press you can't have a functioning democracy " (Samantha Bee , Full Frontal, Not The White House Correspondence Dinner 4/5)
Without a free press you can't hold the powerful to account.
Without a free press you can't roast a rubbish political leader...
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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